When it comes to marketing, change is always here. Change is not only about your marketing strategies or tools, but it's also about your customers. It is true that millennials shaped the way marketers think, but things have changed. Gen Zers are your new partners in crime.
As of today’s teenagers and future customers, Gen Zers dominate the internet. According to the Global Web Index report published in January 2022, Gen Zers spend more than 8 hours a day online. This means that if you want to succeed with your digital marketing strategy, you should consider the cool kids on the block.
Considering they grew up in the digital age and are digital natives with 8 seconds of attention span, drawing Gen Zers’ attention is not easy. Therefore, you need to make some noise and create a solid digital marketing strategy to keep their attention.
We know it might be daunting, but don't worry. We’ve compiled all the information you need to know about Gen Z customers and how you can attract them with growth marketing tactics. If you want to keep up with the cool kids, keep reading!
Generation Z is today's teenagers that were born between the mid-’90s and early 2000s. This generation comes after millennials and they are also called the homeland generation, post-millennials, and iGeneration.
These kids are bold, creative, and tech-savvy. Contrary to older generations, Gen Z is the most educated and most racially and ethnically diverse generation ever. They constitute 26% of the total global population, meaning that there are 2 million people in the Gen Z generation.
No hard feelings, but in terms of digitalization and technology, they are indeed cooler than previous generations. As they can not imagine a world without technology and the internet, they spend a lot of time online and can adapt to the latest technologies quickly.
Keep in mind that Generation Z lives, shops, and socialises online. They are all online, all the time. So online channels are influential for them throughout the whole customer journey. More importantly, they have great potential to engage. According to Forbes, Gen Zers are mostly looking for engaging conversations with brands and are interested in building relationships.
By holding massive spending power, Gen Zers can influence businesses, brands, and markets. Their creativity and attentiveness represent a huge opportunity for companies to provide sustainable business growth.
So if you want to target the Gen Z audience along with \millennials and previous generations, you should understand their needs and find creative ways to connect with them.
You don’t need to stress about it–we know how you can keep the cool kids onboard with growth marketing tactics.
What’s certain is that marketing to Gen Z is much more than simply selling products. So the first red flag is only trying to get them to buy your stuff. Gen Zers are different from millennials and baby boomers because they want to collaborate with brands and engage through their channels.
Here are vital growth marketing tactics to grab Gen Zers’ attention and engage with them:
The first step is to reach and attract your target audience with the help of the growth funnel framework. This can be achieved by creating valuable content through the right channels. As your target audience is Gen Zers, it is effective to use catchy, easily shareable, and unique content to engage with them.
When you think about teenagers, the use of social media comes as a promotion. For this reason, a strong social media presence gives a competitive advantage to brands. According to Hootsuite, 85% of Gen Z use social media to learn about new products. So you should engage in a conversation with your Gen Z audience using trendy social media channels such as TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube.
After you decide which social media channels to use, you can create your unique content and plan how often to post by preparing a social media calendar.
Gen Zers are the most educated and diverse generation ever. As a result, they care about the world around them. This means if you want to grab their attention, you need to give your business a purpose. You should show them you care about the world and are fully aware of the environmental, political, and socio-economic problems they face.
A study Google conducted proves that teenagers want brands to be “a representation of their values, their expectations of themselves and their peers". So instead of focusing on how great your products and services are, you should focus on their problems, needs, and values.
A lower attention span means less time to draw them in. Gen Zers are practical with their needs. They live in the world of immediate answers and infinite choices. Therefore, you only have seconds to make an initial impression before they leave.
In this stage, it is significant to demonstrate value to the audience at every step of the journey as this is where you will engage and convert your audience.
You should lead the cool kids through your marketing strategies by using your websites and social media channels. You can provide fun and useful content such as free trials, templates, and downloadable content. To engage more with them, you can run polls and quizzes and organise events on your social media channels.
One thing to take into consideration at this stage is the quality of your website. A study from IBM shows that 62% of Gen Zers will not use an app or website that is too slow to load. For this reason, prioritise UX improvements to provide the best website experience for your target audience.
Gen Z consumers are eager to collaborate with brands. Most of them are interested in submitting ideas, participating in events, and providing feedback to brands. At the same time, they trust online ratings and reviews when they shop online. So it's a win-win situation. By providing them with a place to promote your brand through your content, you can also increase customer retention and create loyal customers.
You can host events on social media channels such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram, collaborate with influencers, and host events to get their ideas and feedback.
You know that they are young, so they want to get straight to the point. To achieve that, you should deliver your messages through clear and sincere messages. Make sure all your messaging and offerings are consistent and you provide them through a personalised experience.
Let’s start with the basics. Growth marketing is a holistic approach to digital marketing practices with data-driven and experimental methods. This methodology aims to evaluate the entire marketing funnel holistically, so it is more sophisticated and extremely different from traditional marketing.
Growth marketing is surely a buzzword, and more importantly, it is a unique methodology to create the right strategies for every step of marketing to ensure sustainable growth.
That is to say, if you don't want to be like Ryan from The Office, who made zero sales in eight years, you can implement growth marketing tactics to build and execute successful digital marketing strategies and connect with your target audience.
You know that the crux of growth marketing methodology is having a holistic approach to all marketing activities. Do you know how you can achieve this? Well, the answer is embedded in the “Growth Funnel” framework. For growth marketers, the growth funnel is a guide. It provides you with growth tactics in every step to building your marketing strategy. In addition to that, its OKRs (Objective Key Results) and Test & Learn methods help you to set company-wide objectives and test them constantly.
The growth funnel guides you through the customer journey to reach, attract, engage and convert your target audiences. You can use this framework to create unique strategies to draw the attention of your Gen Z audience.
Members of Gen Z are creative, unique, and socially conscious. Consequently, they are hard to achieve. To succeed with your digital marketing strategy and efforts, you should adapt to their preferences, needs, and values. Growth marketing tactics are here to help– by implementing the growth mindset to your digital marketing strategy, you can grab the attention of the cool kids.
